


Into The Blue

by vinegar-and-glitter (vinegarandglitter)



Series: Long Road Home [2]
Category: Fallout 3, Fallout 4
Genre: Automatron DLC, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Road Trip!, the gang's all here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-16 08:31:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10567533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vinegarandglitter/pseuds/vinegar-and-glitter
Summary: An all-too-familiar disease breaks out at a Minutemen settlement, sending the Commonwealth into a panic. The best hope of finding a cure lies in getting Duncan MacCready from the Capital Wasteland.Post ‘The Nuclear Option’ (Minutemen Affiliation) and MacCready’s personal quests (max affinity, romanced).





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hi folks, it’s a sequel to Vault 99! Kind of. If you haven’t read Vault 99, don’t worry, as this more or less stands alone. It should be pretty clear as to where we are in canon in this first chapter. 
> 
> If you've read Vault 99, you'll recognise Lara, an OC who's Cait's love interest.

_”Please_ turn off the radio, I am _begging_ you.”

Nora pouted. “But this is my favorite song.”

MacCready let out a long-suffering sigh. “Nora, _come on_.”

“Hey, it’s her party and she can listen to whatever she wants to,” Deacon said, waving a bottle of whiskey in Nora’s direction. MacCready fixed him with an exasperated look and Nora tried not to laugh. 

“That’s easy for you to say - you just got here.”

Deacon shrugged and kept drinking. MacCready looked around the group, clearly trying to find someone who’d back him up. _Fat chance,_ she thought to herself smugly. 

“Preston, you’ve been here since this first started. You’ve got to be sick of it by now,” MacCready pleaded with Nora’s faithful lieutenant. Preston was happily downing an ice cold beer, thanks to the efforts Drinkin’ Buddy, who was equally happy handing beverages and terrible jokes to the settlers and friends she’d gathered in Sanctuary to celebrate her 238th birthday. 

“Hey, it’s the General’s birthday,” Preston replied with a smile. “And I’m off duty, so I plan to keep drinking ice cold beer until I can’t remember my own _name_ , let alone this song.”

“Hear hear,” said Piper, who was already well on her way to total inebriation. “This beer robot is _amazing_ , by the way. Every settlement should have one.” 

“Drinkin’ Buddy’s one of a kind, unfortunately,” Nora said with a wistful smile. 

“Challenge accepted, right Isabel?” Deacon gave the former Mechanist a nudge and she giggled furiously. Nora wondered for a moment if Isabel was actually over 21, then remembered that the drinking age really didn’t matter anymore. 

“Well, I guess if I could find some Protectrons to modify, I could have a go,” she said thoughtfully, before having another sip of beer. “Ice cold beer is definitely an improvement over… not cold beer.”

“Is no one else going to comment on the fact that this is now at least the thirtieth time Diamond City Radio has played ‘The Wanderer’ in a row?” MacCready demanded. “I get that it’s your favourite, but seriously - what did Travis do, just put the song on repeat and then leave?”

“That’s exactly what he did,” said Nick with a chuckle. “He’s trying to get the Commonwealth to celebrate Nora’s birthday as some kind of holiday, so he took the day off and left the radio to its own devices.”

“That’s so sweet!” Nora gushed, buzzed enough by the beer she’d already consumed to find that immensely flattering. “What a guy, that Travis Lonely Miles.”

“I can get behind your birthday being a holiday, knockout,” MacCready said, giving Nora a quick kiss on the cheek before continuing. “But if I hear this song one more time, I’m going to completely lose my mind.”

“You told me you liked this song,” she pointed out. 

“Yeah, well, I’m taking that back,” he grumbled. 

Nora was spared coming up with a witty retort by the arrival of Cait and her girlfriend Lara, the much-loved bartender from Sunshine Tradings Co-op, complete with a pack brahmin that Nora just _knew_ was absolutely loaded with booze. She squealed in excitement and ran over to greet them. 

“How was the trip?” Nora asked, leading the two of them into the fray of people. “Uneventful, I hope?”

“It’s never dull traveling with Cait, that’s for sure,” said Lara with a smile. “Mole rats, raiders, bloatflies - it doesn’t matter, she’ll fight them.”

“Anything for you, darlin’.”

“See, I feel like you want me to swoon that you’re willing to fight for my honor, but I know you just like picking fights.”

“It’s all about multi-tasking, love,” Cait replied before kissing her girlfriend gently. “If I can keep you safe and have a good punch-up at the same time, then what more could I possibly want from life?”

As they all sat back down, Nora noticed the lack of singing. She narrowed her eyes at MacCready, who smiled innocently. 

“Robert Joseph MacCready, where’s the radio?”

Deacon giggled into his whiskey as MacCready gestured to a pile of scrap nearby. “It died honorably. Anyone here will back me up.”

“It’s true,” said Piper with a slight hiccup. “The radio flung _itself_ onto the concrete.”

Nora sighed dramatically and motioned to her Pip-Boy. “You know, I could just keep playing the radio on this.”

“Please don’t,” said Preston immediately, before blushing bright red. 

MacCready burst out laughing. “I _knew_ it bugged you too!”

“Preston, how could you betray me like this?” Nora asked, voice thick with mock disappointment. 

Preston laughed good-naturedly. “Remember how I mentioned earlier I was off-duty?” 

Nora sat down on the couch next to MacCready, who slung his arm around her shoulders and kissed her forehead. “I’ll get you a new radio,” he promised. “As soon as Travis is back on the air.”

“To be a fly on the wall in Diamond City right now,” Nick mused, obviously entertained by the thought. “People must be so sick of that song by now.”

“You weren’t in town the last time he did that, weren’t you?” said Piper, eyes widening. “Oh man, it was hilarious. I was sure that Doctor Sun’s head was going to explode. Eventually Moe snapped and smashed one of those radio eyebots with his swatter.”

“What was the song?” asked Preston. 

Piper took a swig of her beer before loudly beginning to sing. “‘I’m in love, I’m in love, I’m in love, I’m in love, I’m in love with a wonderful guy!’” 

The assembled group moaned loudly in commiseration. 

“See, it could have been worse,” Deacon pointed out. “And hey, if you want variety, get me another whiskey and I’ll sing you Butcher Pete.”

Nora turned to MacCready. “Your job for the evening is to make sure Deacon doesn’t get another whiskey.”

“I can’t make any promises.”

“But it’s my birthday!”

Looking over at the assembled group of people, Nora smiled and snuggled into MacCready. It was good to see everyone together, albeit kind of surreal. The last time she’d been to any kind of celebration in Sanctuary Hills had been pre-war - a barbecue on the 4th of July. This party, however, was quite a different affair. The smell of cooking meat filled the air, provided by Strong. The supermutant didn’t quite understand why it was necessary to _cook_ the meat ( _”Why human burn meat? Blood taste good!”_ ” but he’d gotten quite good at roasting it to perfection. 

_Not bad for a dinner party after the end of the world. God, if my neighbors could see this. They wouldn’t know what to say._

“Hey mom, what happened to the music?” 

Nora smiled as Shaun approached the group, Dogmeat in tow. “You can ask RJ about that,” she said, digging her elbow into MacCready’s side. 

MacCready had the good grace to look slightly ashamed. “The radio, uh, stopped working.”

“Can I have a go at fixing it?” Shaun asked, eyes lighting up. 

“Go right ahead, kid,” said Nora before MacCready could respond. Shaun grinned then looked at the pile of scrap in slight confusion. 

“Wow, it really stopped working,” he said. He turned to MacCready. “You smashed it because you were sick of the song, didn’t you?”

MacCready looked at Nora, who burst out laughing in response. 

“MacCready was performing a public service,” Deacon told Shaun. “Preston was getting frustrated.”

Preston looked alarmed. “Hey, don’t drag me into this.”

“The same song over and over again was kind of annoying,” said Shaun with a shrug. “And there are heaps of neat parts in this smashed radio! I bet I can use it to make something really cool.”

“That’s the spirit,” said Deacon. “Silver lining and all that.”

Ever since destroying the Institute, Nora and MacCready had settled in Sanctuary, due to the unexpected arrival of the child synth Shaun. It had been a bit weird at first, but she’d adapted quickly to having a ten year old and didn’t spend too much time thinking about the synth aspect. After all, if he was programmed to think he was a normal ten year old boy, he needed his mom - and that was something she could give him, at least for a little while. 

Shaun’s arrival hadn’t fazed MacCready in the slightest. The two of them had hit it off pretty well from the beginning. Watching the way they interacted made Nora’s heart warm in ways she’d never thought it could again. MacCready was really, really good with Shaun. Nora supposed it had a lot to do with growing up at Little Lamplight. Plus, at the end of the day, her partner had more hands-on parenting experience than she did. Having decided that ‘MacCready’ was too formal for a kid and ‘Robert’ was a name reserved for Nora, he’d asked Shaun to call him RJ, which worked out well for everyone. 

Another thing that had changed was that Shaun’s arrival meant less running around the Commonwealth. It was an adjustment. Nora had been on the move more or less non-stop since coming out Vault 111. Being in one place for any length of time… well, it wasn’t something she was used to. And she’d feared MacCready wouldn’t be happy staying in one place. So she’d offered him the chance to go back to Goodneighbor to pick up another contract if he wanted. That conversation had gone south pretty quickly. 

_”You want me to leave?”_

_Nora blinked. “I didn’t say that.”_

_He looked at her, blue eyes full of uncertainty. “If you want me to leave, I’ll leave. I don’t want to force anything on you. I just thought…”_

_“I don’t want you to leave,” she said firmly, trying to reassure him. “It’s just that we won’t be making tons of caps hanging around Sanctuary - odd jobs here and there, sure, but not what you’re used to. I’d understand if you wanted to pick up a more lucrative contract.”_

_Robert sighed. “Nora, I told you it wasn’t about the caps anymore. Do you think that’s all I care about?”_

_“No, but-”_

_“I_ want _to be here with you and Shaun,” he insisted. “As long as you want me here.”_

_Nora felt her eyes sting a little. “Of course I want you here. But what about Duncan?”_

_“I’ve got a plan,” he assured her. “It’s gonna take a bit of time, but believe me, it doesn’t include running around the Commonwealth with anyone but you.”_

_“I can’t say I’m not relieved to hear that,” she said, wrapping her arms around him. “I just wanted to make sure you knew you have options.”_

_“I know I do,” said Robert, kissing the top of her head. “I’m exactly where I want to be.”_

“Everyone, we are ready to dine!” Curie announced, coming over to the assembled group with Strong in tow. “Where are Messieurs Hancock and Danse? They will require sustenance, yes?”

“Danse is on guard duty,” Nora replied, “even though he shouldn’t be. You might have more luck convincing him to join us, Curie.”

“I will speak to him. And Monsieur Hancock?” 

Nora looked at MacCready, who shot Shaun a glance to see if he was paying attention. Seeing that Shaun was happily going through the remains of the radio, MacCready spoke quietly. “He’s off somewhere having a chem break. I told him he needs to keep the chems away from our kid.” He blushed bright red. “Nora’s kid.” He stood up. “I’ll go find him.” With that, he was off like a shot before Nora could even respond. 

_Okay, that was a little unexpected… not_ bad _, just unexpected._ Deciding she’d talk to him later, Nora followed Curie and the rest of the group to the dining hall. 

When they’d set up Sanctuary, Nora had helped build a large barn structure on the foundation of one of the houses that had been totally destroyed and demolished. The settlers had been busy furnishing it with tables, chairs, posters and lights, making it a really lovely place for them to eat, socialise and generally have a good time. Piles and piles of cooked meat sat on a long table, along with about a dozen loaves of cornbread, made from Mama Murphy’s much loved recipe. Jun had proven quite adept at making a sauce from tatos and vinegar - it wasn’t quite as good as the barbecue sauce Nora remembered from pre-war times but it was pretty darn close. 

It was an almost excessive amount of food and it made Nora’s mouth water. They’d all eat well tonight - it was a celebration, after all. As nice as it was to have everyone she cared about in one place, the celebration was just as important to the settlers. It was hard work, trying to survive, and opportunities to kick back and relax were few and far between. The people all needed this. 

“Monsieur Strong, this is most delicious!” Curie said, her plate full of food. “Thank you very much for cooking for us.”

“Meat make human strong - strong like human, not strong like supermutant,” he said gruffly. “Human like burned meat, so Strong burn. But better with blood.”

“This sauce is incredible!” Piper exclaimed. “You should bottle it and sell it. I bet people in Diamond City would pay good money for this stuff.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Nora mused. “Jun, what do you reckon?”

Jun looked over from where he was sitting with Marcy, digging into his meal. The two exchanged a look and Jun nodded. “As long as we can keep the tato crop thriving, it’s not completely crazy.”

“We’d need to store into something that travels well,” Marcy said, her usual harsh tone not quite concealing her excitement at the prospect. “We’ve been keeping it in old bottles, if we could figure out a way to seal them properly, like they did pre-war… Sturges, do you reckon you could help with that?”

“Can’t be too hard,” Sturges agreed amiably between mouthfuls of brahmin steak. He wiped a smudge of sauce from the side of his mouth. “This stuff is awful good, and it can’t hurt to have more to trade.”

“Call it Long Sauce,” Nora suggested. “It’ll be a hit.”

Stuges, Jun and Marcy continued talking animatedly about their sauce trading plans, and Nora headed over to get some food for herself. She piled up her plate then sat down at a table with Deacon, Curie and Danse. “Oh good, we’ve managed to drag you away from the guard tower,” Nora said to Danse with a smile. “Thanks for taking a guard shift, it’s definitely appreciated.”

“It’s the least I can do,” he replied. “Happy Birthday, Nora.”

As she ate her meal, people came to and from her table to wish her happy birthday - most of them dropping off gifts, despite her insistence that she didn’t need anything when she first started planning the celebration. By the time she was done eating, she’d accumulated a small pile of presents - bottles of Nuka Cola, packets of Fancy Lad Snack Cakes, flip lighters and other bits and bobs. They were the kind of things that would have been considered pretty cheap to give as a present pre-war, but Nora knew that wasn’t the case now. People didn’t have much to give, but they did anyway. It was kind of beautiful, seeing charity in a world so uncharitable. 

“Mind if I steal you away for awhile?”

Nora hadn’t seen MacCready approach until he was standing right next to her, hand on her shoulder. She smiled. “I suppose I could stand it.”

He took her hand and let her to a secluded spot behind the dining hall. “Just wanted some privacy,” he explained. “I have a gift for you.”

“Is it the kind of gift where you take off your pants?” Nora asked with a smirk. “Because if that’s the case, then maybe we should find a bedroom.”

MacCready grinned. “I’ll take my pants off for you anytime, angel.” He leaned in and kissed her. 

Nora didn’t think she’d ever get tired of kissing MacCready - the sensation of his slightly chapped lips on hers, the warmth of his mouth, the gentle pressure of his tongue. They’d had plenty of kisses since their first one and still a thrill went through her every time. It never felt quite real, but at the same time it was the steadiest, safest thing she had. A study in contradictions, just like MacCready with his deadly aim and soft smile. 

“We can revisit the taking off pants business after the party,” Nora said with a smile as they parted for air. “But you said something about a gift.”

He fumbled in his pockets and took out a small bag, then placed it in her palm and gently curved her fingers around it. “You don’t have to open it now if you don’t want to,” he said hurriedly, blushing bright red. 

“Of course I’m going to open it now,” Nora replied with a roll of her eyes. “It’s my birthday.”

“Never would have suspected you were such a big fan of birthdays ‘til now,” he said with a smirk as she fumbled with the drawstrings of the bag, then emptied the contents into her hand. 

Nora gasped as she saw it - a delicate necklace with a simple charm on the end. Upon closer inspection, she could see it was an empty bullet casing, cleaned of any gunpowder residue, leaving it a gleaming bronze color. She looked up at MacCready, whose expression was caught somewhere between anticipation and fear. 

“I hope you like it,” he said cautiously. “Found the chain somewhere in our travels awhile back… I know it’s kind of weird to have a bullet as a necklace, but I thought you might like it. And maybe… I know you put your wedding ring in a safe, but maybe you’d like to put it on the chain as well. So you keep him with you. And keep me with you.” He cleared his throat nervously. “Not that I’m planning on going anywhere without you, but… say something?”

She grabbed the collar of his jacket and pulled him in for a searing kiss, trying to convey everything she couldn’t put in words. Trying to show how much she loved that they’d found each other after losing their first loves. How much it meant to her that he understood that loss, how he was willing to recognize and appreciate the past while still looking forward. There was so much she wanted to say but it all boiled down to one thing. 

“I love you.”

MacCready smiled. “I love you, too. Happy Birthday.”

“General!” 

Both Nora and MacCready groaned at the sound of one of the settlers trying to locate her. “Can’t I have the day off?” Nora whined. “It’s my birthday.”

“I know it is,” MacCready said sympathetically. “Want me to go tell them to fuck off - I mean, not bother you?”

Nora laughed. “Nah, let’s just go find out what they want and get it over with so we can get back to the party.”

MacCready sighed. “Fine. But it better be quick. I hear that Piper made cake.”

“Piper can bake?”

He shrugged. “I guess we’ll see.”

Nora slipped the necklace into her pocket, resolving to ask MacCready to help her fasten it later. They headed toward the sound of the voice. It took a moment for Nora to place the settler who’d called out for her but after a few moments it clicked - Nigel Carlton, who ran the weaponry store, married to Mary, who ran the clinic and was about eight months pregnant. An uneasy feeling settled in her stomach. 

“Nigel, what’s going on?” she asked. 

“You need to get to the clinic now,” he said hurriedly. “We’ve got a situation.”

Nora broke into a sprint and headed past the dining hall toward the clinic, MacCready hot on her heels. “Mary? Nigel sent me, is everything okay?”

The pregnant woman was pale. “Sally Holmes came in with a headache and a fever this morning,” she began shakily, leading them into the separate room they’d set up as a medical bay. “I gave her a quarter dose of Med-X and have kept her here to see if her fever would go down but it’s gotten worse. And just now... look at her arm.”

Nora looked at the young girl on the bed for a moment and ice shot down her spine as she realised what she was looking at. “Oh my god. Robert, look…”

She turned to her partner to see the color drain out of his face. “Blue boils,” he said, his voice heavy. “Just like Duncan.”

“You’ve seen this disease before?” Mary asked sharply. “How do we cure it?”

Nora and MacCready exchanged a solemn look. Finally it was MacCready who spoke. “I don’t think we can.”


End file.
